2017 Shingo Prize for Literature Some things never change. Harley-Davidson is still the great, iconic American motorcycle. But like many storied companies, Harley has had to evolve to stay on top, even to stay in existence. From near-extinction in the early eighties, it has risen to worldwide recognition for management excellence and innovation. The Lean Machine is an inside look at how Harley-Davidson was able to adapt in an ever-changing world and accelerate product development. Rooted in Japanese productivity improvement techniques, Knowledge-Based Product Development helped fuel Harley’s incredible period of sustained growth. Even after the company earned the PDMA Corporate Innovator Award in 2003, Dantar Oosterwal, a Harley-Davidson executive, took the improvement a quantum leap further. By implementing Lean Product Development techniques, Harley realized an unprecedented fourfold increase in throughput in half the time, powering annual growth of more than ten percent. In The Lean Machine, Oosterwal shows the day-to-day transformation at Harley and identifies universal change and improvement issues, so that companies in any industry can incorporate Knowledge-Based Innovation—with predictably excellent results.

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"[Oosterwal] gives business leaders insight on supporting innovation and shows them how their companies can consistently excel at developing innovative and profitable products and still keep employees motivated, energized and always learning." --"Biztimes Milwaukee"

"The author uses a friendly, conversational approach....The lessons provided are universal and helpful for any company needing a resurgence." --"APICS Magazine"

""The Lean Machine" serves best as a set of tips for the project manager, but executives can also benefit from Oosterwal's wisdom when they are trying to build a top-performing team of product developers or engineers." --"Houston Business Journal"

."..valuable insights for people interested in understanding how systematic problem solving applies to the kinds of problems that product development managers need to solve..." "-- Journal of Product Innovation Management"

..".valuable insights for people interested in understanding how systematic problem solving applies to the kinds of problems that product development managers need to solve..." "-- Journal of Product Innovation Management"

From the Inside Flap

Like many celebrated companies, Harley-Davidson has soared, faltered, nearly died, and come back to life as a robust, iconic institution. And like all enduring companies, it learned that the constant push to improve and innovate is essential for staying on top--and even for staying in existence. "The Lean Machine" is an intriguing, behind-the-scenes account of Harley-Davidson's remarkable post-bankruptcy growth period, spurred largely by radical improvements to its product development processes. As director of product development, author Dantar Oosterwal was instrumental in applying lean principles to the realm of product development (principles made famous by Toyota's vaunted production system). The result was the highly efficient and effective "Knowledge-Based Product Development"--a revolutionary system that reduced development time by half, and quadrupled new product development throughput. Combining a probing, nuanced examination of the product development process with a sweeping systems approach to understanding its full scope and impact on an organization, "The Lean Machine" traces the evolution that the Harley-Davidson product development team underwent as it moved to its breakthrough process of cadence, flows, and set-based designs, stopping along the way to: - Explore the far-reaching effect of "firefighting," which funnels huge amounts of time, money, and human resources into fixing last-minute problems. - Pinpoint the hidden problem of "False Positive Feasibility," which dooms many projects developed with common phase-gate processes. - Explain the remarkably practical, low-tech oobeya process for visually documenting targets, objectives, and workflow. - Uncover the powerful results achieved by building product development on a foundation of planned, experiential learning cycles. - Make a persuasive case for adopting a "combat planning" approach to product development, which is better suited to turbulent conditions. Packed with actual data, true stories, and engaging, first-person narrative, "The Lean Machine" gives you deep insights and reliably effective strategies for using Knowledge-Based Product Development to radically improve your own systems, developing more new products in much less time--and with predictably excellent results. Dantar P. Oosterwal has led global innovation improvements as vice president of innovation at Sara Lee and as director of product development at Harley-Davidson. Dantar holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and a master's degree in Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. He lives in Batavia, Illinois.

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Quick read, great ideas. The first two chapters seem a bit irrelevant and at some points it might be repeating itself. That said this is a unique book because it gives a grounded overview of the efforts required to make a company with significant branding and which is lready successful and growing, more agile and more succesful. Most books describe company turnarounds which are somewhat easier since people are more open when they face failure. This book is all about a successful company becoming more agile and more successful. Must read if you're working or consulting a company that is already doing well and even more must-read if it's an American company.

"The Lean Machine" provides a very accessible introduction to the topic of lean product development told as a narrative about the evolution of such processes at Harley Davidson. The author has an easy, chatty, style and this is a good introduction. However, sometimes it is a little too chatty and it lacks the "how to" specifics that you would want to implement lean product development in your business - "Mastering Lean Product Development" may be that book (though that lacks anything on Oobeya which this book is strong on). A good overview.

The Harley-Davidson Motor Company revels in the marketing image it has crafted and maintained for more than a century. Mere mention of the motorcycle giant conjures up visions of tattooed, muscle-bound renegades blazing an intimidating trail on the nation's highways. Harley's corporate environment exists in stark contrast to this image. Their staff features progressive, astute individuals who enjoy a stellar reputation for innovative business practices. Author Dantar P. Oosterwal, Harley's former director of product development, is eminently qualified to critique the organization's operation. To his credit, Oosterwal resists engaging in self-congratulatory back-slapping. Instead, he presents a backstage tour of Harley-Davidson, expounding on its philosophies, procedures and problem-solving methods. Oosterwal, who earned a master's degree in management at MIT, focuses on business theories and dynamics, not personalities. While the book is not necessarily geared toward novice professionals, getAbstract nevertheless believes that Oosterwal's mantra should resonate loudly within corporations everywhere: Practice innovation and emphasize quality - or risk extinction.